After a 1-0 loss to Georgia on Friday night, the Long Beach State women’s soccer team turned around a frustrating weekend with a thrilling overtime win on a golden goal by freshman Ashley Webb to beat Auburn 2-1 on Sunday.
Webb’s golden goal about a minute into overtime was also the first goal of her collegiate career, and it gave the ‘Niners (4-3-0) the win over the Tigers (3-3-1) in a hot and humid afternoon game at the Auburn Soccer Complex.
“All in all, I’m happy with how we finished off the weekend, with being able to get the result after losing on Friday,” head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said.
Midfielder Eileen Maes erased a 1-0 deficit in the 57th minute with a direct shot from three yards out on a pass by freshman
Mimi Rangel. Just over half an hour later, Rangel supplied the ‘Niners with her second assist of the day to set Webb up for the winning shot.
While LBSU earned the victory on the equalizer in the second half and the golden goal in overtime, it found itself repeating a bad first-half habit that it’s still trying to correct. For the seventh consecutive game this season, the ‘Niners walked off the field at halftime without a goal.
“We’d like to win the first half, but I think this team is understanding how to manage games,” Ingrassia said. “Sometimes the first half may not happen, but we have 90 minutes, sometimes 100 minutes, to score.”
Ingrassia said his team was able to come out on top because it held possession of the ball longer than Auburn did. While the
‘Niners only held the ball for about 43 percent of Friday’s game, Ingrassia said they controlled it for somewhere around 60 percent today.
“We didn’t take care of the ball at all [Friday],” Ingrassia said. “We were really careless with the ball, but we really emphasized it today.”
Goalkeeper Kaci McCain had another solid game defending the net, as she matched her career-high five saves that she recorded on Friday.
The Beach returns home on Saturday to host No. 6 Brigham Young at George Allen Field. The game will start at 7 p.m.
